Dead Weather share ‘Sea of Cowards’ at Jack White’s house

The Dead Weather gave folks watching all over the world a refreshingly positive reason to check in on Nashville Monday afternoon: They were playing a concert.

The rock supergroup -- featuring Nashvillians Jack White and Jack Lawrence -- treated a hundred or so fans and friends to a live performance of their upcoming sophomore album Sea of Cowards at White's Third Man Records compound in downtown Nashville. The 60-minute set was broadcast live on UStream.tv and MySpace.

"Welcome to my house," White told his audience early on, and it looked like folks felt right at home.

If their performance was a fair indicator, we'll be hearing the band stirring the pot a bit on Cowards (due out May 11 via Warner Bros. Records and Third Man). Dean Fertita split his time equally between guitar and a fresh array of synthesizers, and White hopped off the drum stool to play electric guitar on "I Can't Hear You" and to be full-on frontman with album closer "Old Mary." The latter also saw bassist Lawrence getting behind the drum kit. Frontwoman Alison Mosshart certainly seemed to be going the album-faithful route -- she was essentially relegated to back-up dancer/contortionist duty on one White-fronted song.
Even with the constant game of musical chairs, we regret to report that Cowards' grooves just weren't feeling quite as fun as those on the band's razor-sharp debut, Horehound. Some arrangements felt slapdash and exhaustingly relentless. An encore of Horehound's singles was an easy highlight, and it wasn't due to familiarity.

Of course, there are more than a few great albums that wouldn't fly nearly as well in a live setting, so we'll reserve judgment on Cowards until we hear the studio-bred version -- but don't let us stop you from judging right away. You can check out the full performance on the band's MySpace page.